Tour de Suisse Stage 2: UAE Can’t Open a Gift from Pogačar as Breakaway Has Its Day

Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) won a sprint of 6 breakaway riders on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday after UAE Emirates-XRG couldn’t open a gift from Tadej Pogačar.

Grégoire launched a long kick to beat Marcel Camprubí (Pinarello Q36.5) and Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) before Pogačar finished eighth and took more time on his GC rivals.

Pogačar now has a gap of 2:50 over Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) after he already wrought havoc on the opening stage of his Tour de France prep race.

“It was a really hard day, we managed really well with the team getting in the breakaway,” Grégoire said in his winner’s interview. “We’re really happy with this victory.”

Grégoire got into the early break of 14 along with his teammate Ewen Costiou.

The 23-year-old Frenchman held strong all day and survived a chaotic finale that saw Pogačar chasing down the leaders in the final 5km.

“We couldn’t do anything when we knew Pogačar was behind – we just went full gas,” Grégoire said. “We couldn’t accelerate, we just had to wait and hope he wouldn’t be able to come back.”

Pogačar found himself caught behind Grégoire’s group after he tried to set up his Tour de France and monument superdomestique Jhonatan Narváez.

However, when Narváez lost his attacking punch at the key moment, Pogačar was caught in no-man’s land and without enough time to catch the winning group.

Pogačar races distracted after Žigart’s crash

Racing wasn’t the only thing on Pogačar’s mind on Thursday. His partner Urška Žigart broke her jaw in a heavy crash in the women’s Tour de Suisse on Thursday morning.

Pogačar could be seen face-timing Žigart while he cooled down on the rollers after the stage. He rushed to see her at the nearby hospital soon afterward.

UAE team manager Mauro Gianetti said after the stage that Pogačar was understandably distracted when he clipped in on Thursday lunchtime.

“Tadej got the bad news before the start,” Gianetti said. “I reassured him well – I saw Urška before the start. There’s nothing serious. But he really didn’t have the mindset to be racing.

“I saw Tadej a bit upset. He wasn’t like usual.”

Pogačar’s plan fails

Grégoire and the break of 14 got away in the hilly opening of Thursday’s stage and profited from UAE Emirates-XRG being left to control the race.

At 20km to go, the attackers looked guaranteed the win. Their 2+ minute lead seemed more than sufficient.

But Pogačar had other plans.

He had a gift to deliver.

Pogačar said Wednesday after his teammates set him up for victory on stage 1 that he wanted to repay them the favor later this week. They’d be pulling for him all July at the Tour de France, after all.

Pogačar piled on at the front along with his teammates on the first of two back-to-back climbs, and the UAE pain-train trimmed the gap to within 30 seconds.

But when Pogačar gave Narváez the pass to attack with around 9km to go, the Ecuadorian lost his legs.

Pogačar didn’t give up on the stage when Narváez melted away.

He chased the 6 remaining breakaway riders along with Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious), but they ran out of road.

Tour de Suisse stage 2 results